spokesperson all of this for simply providing the other side of the story so that my next guest has now committed his life to. considering his the son of a decorated general from the israeli defense force says he was drawn to peace activism in one thousand nine hundred seven primarily in the aftermath of a suicide bombing which tragically took the life of his niece so to talk about his personal journey and help me break through some of the biggest misconceptions about the conflict i spoke with nico the lead peace activist and author of the general's son journey of an israeli and palestine i first asked him about the myths perpetuated regarding the formation of the israeli state take a look at the three men that i usually refer to in the first one is the best of the creation of the state of israel which is the myth is that after the united nations . passed a resolution to partition palestine that. the palestinians did not accept this resolution and then began a massive attack to destroy the small jewish community that was living there at the

time. and then miraculously within a year you know state of israel was created in the small jewish state prevailed and so forth. but then when you look at the details you see that the jewish community at the time which is a small group of immigrants really less than half a million immigrants were living there at the time were suddenly given by the united nations the lion's share of the country and the palestinians who were the vast majority in palestine at the time were were deprived of more than half of their land which is absurd and then you look further and you see that the jewish community had a massive militia of almost forty thousand armed men which my father was a was a father was an officer and there was an equivalent on the palestinian side there was no fighting force in the both inside and then once again you keep looking further and you see that as soon as this resolution was accepted the israeli forces began a massive campaign of ethnic cleansing is probably one of the worst acts of terror that it's taken place in that part of the world in a very long time for an entire year design its forces engaged in

a massive campaign brutal ethnic cleansing. so that's the first minute that i talk about. the second myth is the myth nine hundred sixty seven that once again is your i was faced with was an impending attack and had to engage in a preemptive strike on my father was a general of the time as i was working on the book i went to the archives israeli army archives and ice and i looked at the transcripts of the generals meetings prior to the war and it's absolutely clear that the generals are all saying well there is no threat at all in fact we have an opportunity because the arabs are not preparing for war and therefore we have an opportunity. to strike a destroyer that you're an arab armies and take more land. so that again that was one of those myths that you know that was perpetuated the world one hundred sixty seven was it was a preemptive strike but it was not a war of choice it was there was an existential threat and once again again you

look at the details and you see that there was the most threat at all the general talking about an opportunity. and the third myth that i talk about is that israel is somehow a democracy which is i think the most laughable myth of all. israel today rules the entire the entire country all of palestine or all of israel but again i call it. half the population about six million or six and a half million people are israelis the other half close to five and half million are palestinians and israel governs the israelis and palestinians are different laws right so you have the laws that govern people like myself israeli jews who really live in a democracy free to come and go as they please then you have the laws that govern the palestinians about a million and a half of them are israeli citizens racist laws over thirty laws in the logbooks that discriminate against them specifically and i live in an entire environment of racism and discrimination and then you know i just wanted to jump in there yeah you

really do hear that you know israel's the greatest democracy in the middle east that's a really really important point i want to move on now because with a lot to go over i want to play you something that glenn beck said i know these friends but i think that what he's going to say right here really exemplifies what a lot of people think in this country when they want to criticize israeli government's policies but they're scared of being labeled an anti semite let's check it out. you'll know in the quiet of our own souls exactly what's going on here it has nothing to do with embargoes or borders or anything else that can be solved it's because israel exists and it's a jewish state let's be honest with ourselves there are some people who just can't get past that it's the world's oldest hatred anti-semitism and unfortunately it is alive and well in our time. so there is going back just in regards to the

most recent conflict in the gaza and israel pretty much saying that it's because because it's a jewish state i mean it seems like right now in the discourse of political discourse there is no distinction between judaism zionism how did it become in this country that if you simply voice dissent against israeli government that it's an attack on the jewish people not because the hysteria is a pack and all these other pros i know it's those imus organizations us that create hysteria but you know it's funny when he says the problem here you know what he's right the problem is that your state the problem is that if you're going to have a jewish state in an arab country which is what palestine is where half the population is not jewish you have to have a racist state with racist laws and you know i hold thousands of political prisoners and deny half the population their rights otherwise it would be interstate so in a way glenn beck is right when he says that the problem is that your state and that's why the solution has to be you know similar like in south as in south africa where they have to get rid of apartheid in this case they're going to have to get there is i mean isn't a lot for real democracy the problem is precisely that your state but there is

a differentiation and a distinction between what it means to be jewish want to be the zionist and what it means to be an israeli. you know being zionist means you agree or you think that there should be a jewish state in palestine so that means you agree that there should be a racist state with thousands of political prisoners who deny that deny half the population its rights and its freedoms so if that's what people think and that's what people you know it's a values issue it's not it's not politics anymore i happen to disagree. and then there are many jews around the world who always have opposed the notion of this of a jewish state because it was racist and either were indifferent or poor or in opposition to it reality is that most jewish people don't live there never will live there and even you know after the state was created and this is several years after the holocaust most jewish people preferred not to go there not to live there so you know equating israel with all of judaism as of course is of course another one of those of those middle. and if criticizing israel is anti semitic then i

would i would ask what is it when you support a state that is a racist state what does it say about you if you say if you support a state that holds thousands of thousands of political prisoners only because their palestinians that you know most of them are not engaged in violence what does that mean about you and your lot when you support a state that intentionally drops bombs and and kills children in gaza knowing full well that they're going to kill innocent civilians including children so i think it's important to put things to set the record straight on this issue if opposing this is anti semitism what do you call it when you support this monstrosity excellently wow you go that was great and you know i can't just help but think you know the victimization of of israel and also just it being a jewish state and then using that to victimize a whole nother population it's just mind blowing to me i want to get into netanyahu i mean here he is he's an extreme right winger the right to the right he is one of the first leaders that completely rejects two state solution it looks like he's

going to win again in january i mean what does that say about the mindset of israelis right now do a lot of people agree with you do do a lot of israelis even go into the palestinian territories at all. no the country is completely segregated most israelis would not what would venture either because they don't care because they're afraid and that is a very sad state of fear that there is that's that's a success of the segregation i think even if any. is really the direct he's no i don't think he's any different than any other prime minister that israel has ever had i mean he other prime ministers pretended that they wanted peace he doesn't even pretend that he wants peace but in terms of what they did on the ground there and their relation to the oppression of the palestinians and the brutal you know and the brutality towards palestinians bibi is no worse or better than any other israeli prime minister all those honest governments have been have been the same and you know we can't forget that the i think cleansing that began in one nine hundred forty eight and just probably the most brutal act of terrorism against the

palestinians was conducted while you know it was there was the governing body so to speak was kind of a labor which is a lot more supposedly more liberal so i'm in this regard there's no difference between ateneo gets elected or anybody else gets elected terms of their relations with the palestinians and the brutality of the ongoing while the ongoing brutality against the palestinians is not going to make any difference at all whether he liked it or somebody else and really quickly to wrap it up we've got a minute left but i want to ask you about palestine having the nonmembers status granted recently we've heard a high level officials in the israeli government spewing very hateful rhetoric about in retaliation you know they want to bomb gaza back to the dark ages completely level hamas i mean what do you think is going to happen i know that you advocate just completely tearing down a wall and having it open you know to the possibility. i think it's a possibility i think it's a realistic possibility i think it's going to take place i think israel is on the defensive here they're going to bomb gaza and they're going to just try to destroy

the palestinians either way i think the vocals a positive step i think any recognition of palestinian rights is a positive step is a good thing i hope that it will it will lead to. just actions against israeli politicians and israeli generals in the international criminal court for their crimes against the palestinians because this is this is one advantage of the circuit mission. and i hope to quickly see this this is the end to this crazy notion of a jewish state just because become such a liability for everybody for israelis and for palestinians in the least well thank you so much for opening up that dialogue i think it's one that is crucial and completely not had in this country really needs to be especially when we support israel's actions with so much of our taxpayer dollars every year we go to lead peace activist and author of the general sun thank you so much for coming on and for your time thank you. if you like what you see so far go to our your tube

channel youtube dot com first breaking the set and subscribe at our facebook page or facebook dot com breaking the set another one about what i'm doing when i'm not on air follow me on twitter abby martin and took a break from my preaching for now but stay tuned to hear about the service of the mainstream media when it comes to tragic mass shootings and our coverage next. deadly rivals for decades. if you had fifteen thousand people killing each other in any other country there would be diplomats there would be mediators. self-imposed out costs from society i will cut myself am i going to tax my brother

understand my one time. i'm going to leave basically attack the cause of my anger and my frustration the anger. that. well into the ten dollars. to the most violent gangs in u.s. history. it's just all model kill or be killed with colors matching the national flag. but this country uses violence when it reaches and then it legitimizes the violence they are made in america on the oxy.

more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations are all today.

so i want to bring up something that's been bothering me all weekend following the tragic shooting at sandy hook elementary school in connecticut the corporate media has a latched on to the story like the parasitic vultures they are now i don't mean to say that the shooting doesn't deserve attention but the fact of the matter is that the way the corporate press covers these types of tragedies is like shock and horror and it's always the same check it out. to the worst video yet of the alleged gunman james holmes i'm a b c d was obtaining video of the suspected shooter recorded six years ago when holmes was eighteen at a summer science camp held at

a college in san diego identifying forty year old army veteran wade michael page as the gunman who walked into a sikh temple south of milwaukee sunday morning and opened fire with a nine millimeter semiautomatic handgun killing five men and one woman and wounding three others including the first police officer to arrive on scene friday morning adam lanza shoots his own mother at home several times he drives roughly five miles to sandy hook elementary with guns and ammunition in the car state officials say it's a place he knows from childhood the why he goes there to kill remains a mystery and this kind of coverage is going on twenty four seven and no i'm not going to take the time right now to talk about gun control and whether or not we need to have more or less regulation of what i would like to discuss as whether or not the mainstream media does a disservice in this coverage of these types of stories and the quarter of mass shootings that just makes america so unique among nations that do that now i'm going to correspond to liz wall and honest i was in charge of us from our new york studio so i thought i would start with you when you were on the ground in

connecticut what do you think about the media's coverage they've been covering this fairly. well you know ladies the things that we've seen on the ground while covering the events that took place all throughout this weekend were really quite disgusting i have to say both myself and my cameramen who have covered plenty and plenty of different events first of all have never seen such an extreme media presence on the ground but also some of the ways in which the reporters were behaving were really just outrageous and i popping you know when we see reporters questioning kids and demanding them to relieve relive these gruesome experience that they had and just question after question and when one reporter's done the next one jumps on to the kid and asks all of these terrible questions and just you know we've seen some of them like even rolling their eyes while they're talking to the children because they're so you know over the top it was just really really frustrating to see that and not just the way they were treating their kids but just

the fact in itself that children were being interviewed one after another and asked to talk about these things that's you know that really goes against really some of the morals of this profession because you're basically creating even more of a tear jerker not only are you just demanding that the children that are you know many of whom are experiencing severe stress of course after what happened but you're also just you know not being a very good journalist i think you have to say that you know it's just a little too much in this whole scenario the way they were acting so fair or not you know it's hard to say but definitely very very insensitive really vile and what better way of course to get the visceral emotional reaction than to interview children create if it bleeds it leads what better way than to get those kids the victims right on the screen and make them relive this liz i want to go to you and i can't help but think about the virginia tech shooting i mean if i could think of one killer that the media exploited the most of this i want to play

a song really quickly from. just minutes after firing two fatal shots at the brits . dormitory on monday show song we returned to his own dorm room and made the final preparations to mail what appears to be a video confession. in a separate written document he includes twenty nine photos he apparently took of himself he looks like a normal smiling college student only the first two in the rest he presents the stern face and strikes the pose that was very likely what his victims saw later on monday i mean liz what do you think when we see these killers you know getting twenty four seven media coverage my friend in the u.k. said he knew the killer's name before any of the victims' names i mean do we give killers a sense of infamy and is this really what they want to they want to die and be this in for this person i think of that is exactly what happens and you see we have seen twenty four hour twenty four seven coverage and you hear the name of the suspect

being mentioned over and over again and we know who the name is households across the country know who who this person is and that's absolutely what happens is that they gain this kind of infamy and somebody that has absolutely no respect for human life and is mentally disturbed and is looking for a way to kind of make a name for himself while he's seeing that this is one way to do it. what do you think i mean does this create copycat killers i mean we saw it right after the aurora shooting in colorado the movie theater we saw another person you know trying to do the same thing he knew fortunately got stopped but i mean do you think this inspires other people to jump on board who might be mentally ill as well and want the notoriety i think it's quite possible you know because of course when we're you when you're seeing the names all the time and you're seeing all the media coverage these people get which they certainly don't deserve all of this attention but that's the way media operates these days apparently it's just you know completely

trying to dig up every single detail possibly that they can about shooters and you know not only does this kind of glorify these people. and give them you know this infamy that we're talking about here but what does up happening also quite importantly i think is the media ends up creating fake facts because in the even twenty four hours when this story first broke when the started on friday the media made so many factual mistakes just trying to get some sort of information out there going to an extent of you know giving the wrong name they were saying it was the brother of this particular shooter that was the shooter and so on and so forth many different mistake at least over over ten very popular ones that were repeated on network after network so what does that do to the people you know who didn't do it and they're using this this name and saying this person is the shooter can you imagine his brother turns on the t.v. and he's being named the shooter believe a great point and i can't help but also say you know after every one of these shootings it's like they just can't exploit it enough they go interview the gas station owner across the street what what did you see you know the bus driver who

might have taken just unbelievable liz let's talk about what i think the real problem with the superficial coverage but really just twenty four seventh's and socialism of these tragedies is that it really glosses over this is root problems that cause these sort of mass killings the mental health conversation why does america have these sort of why is it so unique to america that we have these. that's exactly it is you need to america we've seen thirty one shootings since one thousand nine hundred nine the rate of people killed by guns in the us almost twenty times higher than. a similarly developed country so it obviously is a unique problem to the u.s. you i think you hit the nail on the had mental health is obviously a really big factor in all of this time and time again obviously if somebody has the capacity to shoot up a school or a publix a public place this person is not in

a sound mental state what do we do about that perhaps getting. at a stigma associated with getting help finding help for these people surely something needs to get done to make sure that people that are disturbed and mentally ill do get the help that they need right and also maybe not keeping firearms if you have someone who is mentally ill don't have a gun in the house that they can access it and you know we have about a minute left on associate wanted to go with you when i see obama crying it was a very tragic moment of course and he's recounting the victims of all these children who need to died i just can't help but wonder what if we media show the faces of drone of kids who were killed in drone bombings that happened so frequently i mean is it time to extend our empathy past nation states to really gain a global perspective here it was not a minute it's a good question and i don't think we would ever see that happen abbie as we as we all know of course it's a very selective what tragedies the media does and does not cover of course this is

an extreme story that happened here in connecticut but we would never see things like this on mainstream media in the united states because we don't hear much of a conversation about the drone strikes let alone the children that are suffering and you know just in pakistan over the last several years there have been over one hundred sixty one hundred seventy children killed in drone strikes do we hear about this as much as even for a percentage absolutely not absolutely a great point and hopefully that does change one day otherwise i don't know how this world can ever move forward with our collective conscience thank you so much ladies for coming on always a pleasure to talk to you. some of the show's been on the air for over four months now and i keep telling you guys

to write me let me know you think so today we go over some of your feedback and reese let's start with twitter mr phil here. ansen there's that hundreds of firemen fight fires every day and they never hear of nine eleven illnesses this is just a money grab all right due to say that sick and dying first responders are looking for a quote money grab is disgusting i understand that it's a dangerous profession but the government knowingly told the first responders the air was safe to breathe and they weren't given the proper protection to do their jobs i don't know about you but i think it's necessary that the government is held accountable for those lies and from facebook about the school shooting jason tikkun and says this whole thing seems very fishy hurricanes see the sandy hook elementary coincidence they love their symbology don't they i live by but detroit where people get shot every day but never has anybody walked into an elementary school and shot as many kids it doesn't make sense the only thing this accomplish for anyone is the furthering of the gun control agenda i don't know yet i don't know either man i

think it's really time for everyone to stop jumping on the paranoid fear train of government black operations when anything happens in this country before making outrageous conspiratorial claims such as the fact that the government staging every single mash to pass gun control legislation it helps to have a little thing called evidence yet just stop all of you stop and again from facebook no propaganda zone or rote abby with all due respect i enjoy and love almost all of your work but i feel like you've gone off the rails on the unconstitutional union issue is this a russian communist part of our two propaganda that your channel owners forced you to do. did you know that the soviet union fell and as much as you think that i am getting forced to report on issues from my owners i'm not i just happen to be pro-union because i look at a clear statistic showing much more benefits for workers higher pay on average less

work related deaths and union states it's not that hard to grasp moving on to you tube my. two hands twenty one that's a doozy said abby you don't want israel to be used as an involuntary organ donor i agree with you man don't worry i don't think i'll be going to israel anytime soon and another from you tube andrew rusher says i like the martin and agree with most of her things but she's a bit of a man hater. actually i love men and some of you should start looking in the mirror and asking yourselves why a strong woman emasculates you so well that finally my favorite comment comes from commander zero on you tube bruce says that the zombie apocalypse ever comes shall be the one i want to have by my side why thanks to i'm right here to stab zombies in the brain if push comes to shove i have my samurai sword by my bedside of all

that's all i got guys thanks for listening to the good the bad and the strange have a great night i will see you tomorrow. please speak old language. programs and documentaries in arabic it's all here on all t.v. reporting from the world talks about six of v.i.p.'s interviews intriguing stories are you. trying. to find out more visit our big. dog called. she good leverage or need your mccurry was able to build the world's most sophisticated robot which will unfortunately doesn't give

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